The present invention relates generally to material handling equipment, and more specifically to rail maintenance equipment for orienting, sorting and conveying rail fasteners such as cut spikes to a fastener applicator, such as a spike driver.
While the present application is intended for use in handling and sorting rail spikes, it is contemplated that the present apparatus is usable in orienting other rail fasteners such as lag bolts, hairpin spikes, Lewis bolts and the like, as well as other spikes needing repositioning while being conveyed to an operational destination. Thus, “spikes” will be broadly interpreted in the present application. Currently, rail spikes used in a rail maintenance gang are stored in bulk and delivered in relatively small groups to an operator station. One such apparatus employs a reciprocating ram located at the bottom of a storage bin, as disclosed in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,216,590 which is incorporated by reference. In conventional rail maintenance operations employing the reciprocating ram, a small group of spikes is provided by the ram to a delivery location. A designated operator draws individual spikes from the small group supplied by the ram, manually orients them in proper top-to-bottom and front-to-back position, and inserts them into a feed tray of a rail fastener driver magazine, of the type disclosed in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,398,616; 5,465,667 and 7,104,200, all of which are incorporated by reference. Manual loading of such feed trays is a tedious task, which also distracts the attention of the operator who is also controlling the spike driving operation. In some cases, to divide these tasks, two operators are provided, one to load the spike tray and one to control the spike driving mechanism, however there is a resulting additional labor cost to the railroad for performing the spiking operation.
There is a continuing motivation by railroads to reduce the required labor of rail maintenance operations. Accordingly, maintenance machinery manufacturers have attempted to automate tasks where possible.